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6-21-07

 The first outing originally intended to be a fish-til-dark plan with my buddy Steve McCord. I knew the chance of storms existed, but I wasn't too sure what exactly would happen (does that ever happen the other way?) I gave Joel a call and learned that some fairly strong storms were heading straight toward us, and severe warned. A little while later I saw the most impressive mammatus deck I've ever seen around here. I know mammatus are pretty common and they aren't anything to get too excited about, I still thought it was cool looking. Storm structure usually isn't too great in this area.




That would be part of the Rock Island Arsenal in the foreground.


McCord hooks into one as the mammatus creeps straight in overhead.



Steve wanted to stay and fish, but when I heard that it was producing some high winds and large hail (not to mention the wicked cg's approaching in the distance) I wussed out and decided to pack it up. On the way home, I decided to grab some shots. I was actually very disappointed in this set. None of the shots really came out too great.










Wouldn't you know it....the storm drastically weakened just as it got to us. I don't get it.









It was pretty much raining the entire time which in turn reflected the orange lights from the distant street lamps. Just recently I learned the best way to keep water off the lens when attempting lightning. I'll see if if still works with some sideways rain in the future.


6-22-07

I actually don't remember how this night began, but I do remember the rain really frustrating me. It was just that little light rain that was just enough to try and protect the lens and camera the entire time. But, didn't work. I still had water all over the lens and isn't good at all when it comes to some CLOSE bolts. I would sure get some tonight. This first was was at f/5.6, ISO 100. I have found that 5.6 produces some very nice images and is, most of the time, the perfect setting for lightning. That is, if it's at a far enough distance. When I first pulled up, the storm was ONCE AGAIN weakening, so I really wasn't counting on much. As I was getting set up, BOOM, very, very close strike. I think my heart jumped in my throat. I quickly attached the window mount and waited for another one. I figured the odds of me actually getting something in the frame that close was pretty slim since I was facing the wrong way from the previous couple of strikes anyway. I saw some distant bolts, some flashes here and there, but nothing else. I was there for maybe 10 minutes with nothing yet. I was quickly getting disappointed. As I was searching for something else in the truck and the camera set at the 30 second exposure, BOOM, did it again. I had no idea where the strike was.....


Well, I got it...but it's just a TAD blown out. It's hard to tell just how close it was, but it sort of looks like it's over that tree line. I stopped down to f/7.1 soon after and waited again. This was all that was happening as I waited. Nothing special at ALL, although back when I first attempted lightning I would have been going nuts just after something like this.


This was scared the living crap out of me too, which I think shook the mount as I jumped in my seat. As soon as this hit I had to cover the lens to prevent any more light from entering seeing as how blown out the first one was. Better, but not great by any means. This one was definitely a ton closer. I'm thinking it was about 75-100 yards out.


I tried and tried for more after this, but it completely died off after this last one. I thought the nice was over until I saw some more flashes coming in across the river on the way home. Even though it was raining fairly hard, I decided to give a shot anyway. Again, Nothing special by any means, but I had nothing else to do. All of these pictures really lost quality after I saved them for the web via Photoshop. It's definitely a space saver, but I don't like what it does to night shots like this.


One more non-bolt shot.


7-03-07

Now tonight was actually kind of interesting. I knew another lightning outing was definitely in the makings, but as I saw it heading more for Erie, I went ahead and made the trek out there. I left a little early though, so I had to kill a little time. Finally, I can start seeing the first cg's.




Again, I hate what it does to these shots. I makes it look like it was taken with a low end point and shoot.




Pointed back to the northwest as I see more flashes approaching. Keep this image in mind. The orange lights are from some plant in the far distance which just make it look like a bigger town. Night reflections can do some funky things. Other than that, there is pretty much nothing but cornfields in front and behind.










Now, actually as the last picture was in its 30 second route to capturing that bolt, I glanced back to the northwest. Something caught my eye. Was it a tube? I just kept saying "no.....way". I couldn't see a wall cloud with it at all, but it was definitely snaking and moving right to left, which was the storm motion. There was some speculation that it was just a smoke stack or something else, but there is nothing there. Plus, after reviewing the pictures really well, between the only two I took and judging by the first tree to the right of the frame, it moved quite a bit a few minutes. I just sat there and watched it for the majority of its life until it finally dissipated. Upon further inspection and analyses, it was deemed a gustnado. Not very threatening at all and definitely cannot call it a tornado, but it was still my first one! So, I took something away from this night. I wish I would have upped the ISO so I could have avoided the 30 second exposure, but I was a little too excited and hasty to change the settings. It was actually much more narrow than this and was snaking left to right from the cloud base.


The "roping out" stage.


7-09-07

gToday was just another stormy day, nothing severe at all. But, since photo outings are becoming more and more redundant, might as well nab more lightning. Before it became dark, I wanted to give a shot at some daytime lightning. I have only had one to date and it was mediocre at best. Since I just picked up the new cable release, it was time to use it again. Well, it worked. I finally got myself a pretty decent day lightning shot.


These storms passed and there was quite a break. So, I drive back down to the river to scope things out. It's the best area to see anything rolling in. On radar, nothing but some blotchy green non-electric rain blobs.


Later on toward dusk, some weak storms fire up on radar and it's back out I go. This kind of opportunity is by far my favorite. Long exposures at twilight are cool enough on their own, but throw lightning in the mix and it only makes it that much better. Even though I didn't get anything too special once again, I still liked the combination.




7-09-07

Tonight I thought was "THE night". A monster bow echo was screaming straight toward us and was actually gaining strength. Wouldn't you know it?!?! It started losing strength almost directly overhead the QC. Oh well. Par for the course, once again. Lightning was actually pretty hard to nab tonight too due to rain. I'll skip my story of wait of foolishly making a bunch of phone calls and setting in position to get nailed to jump ahead to the lightning.

The good stuff skipped well north and I barely got anything on camera. There were some very vicious looking cg's, but miles and miles away. Once in a great while one would hit fairly close to where I was but for the most part it was just crawlers.




I have about three others but they all kept seeming to be falling off of the frame and barely grabbing just a little bit of it. I was literally on my last shot and flipped the lockup back down when this happened. This just might be my most favorite lightning shot to date.



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Nature, the way it was intended!